Horsing around to highlight love, nature and beauty

In 1994, circus creator Normand Latourelle added an equine extra to one of his productions, and it stole the show.

“There were 120 performers, but when the horse came on stage, the audience were looking at the horse instead of the performers,” says the 56-year-old.

“That's what attracted my attention to horses in the first place.”

The French-Canadian, one of the founders of the legendary Cirque du Soleil, began buying horses to feature in his shows.

Eventually, in 2003, Cavalia was born.

More than 4 million people have now seen the spectacular, described as a magical encounter between human and horse.

It's specially designed touring tent – the largest in the world – will be erected near Brisbane Airport on Thursday ahead of the show's three-week season beginning March 6.

Latourelle, who left Cirque du Soleil in 1990 to stay in Quebec closer to his children after a divorce, says it was problematic to bring animals back into the circus.

“When we created Cirque, it was the idea of traditional circuses abusing animals that we ran away from,” he says in a mellow Quebecois lilt.

He says two things convinced him it would be ethical.

“First, horses are not wild animals,” he says. “Second, we needed to make sure that the horses are trained in a way that doesn't force them.”

The answer was a group of French horse trainers who specialised in the utilisation of the animals' natural behaviours.

“If you push them too much, if you brutalise them, they will respond very badly,” says Latourelle. “We found ways to communicate with horses, allowing them to be happy sharing the space with humans.”

More than 40 horses have been flown to Australia for the tour, with another 40 performers and musicians.

“To become an artist in Cavalia, it's a long process,” says Latourelle. “Some people come as acrobats and we have to train them as riders, some people come as riders and we have to train them as acrobats.”

Latourelle based his script for Cavalia on the simple realisation that horses have been faithful companions to humans for 5000 years.

“People ask me if horses are the same as dogs, and I say they are as much domesticated, but totally different,” he says. “Dogs are predators, whereas the horses don't look for a fight, don't look to eat something, they look to escape.”

Latourelle firmly believes horses are the most beautiful animals on earth, as evidenced by their mythological status across many cultures.

“It's not a pretentious show where we address the audience and tell them how the planet should survive. But at the same time it's not empty – this show is about love, about relationships, about nature and beauty,” he says.

Spending the next three weeks supervising rehearsals for the first leg of the Australian tour, Latourelle is intrigued by why young girls seem to love horses more than boys.

“My granddaughter she is 5, she is all about horses,” he says. “It used to be a man thing, but perhaps now [horses] are not tools any more, men are more and more uninterested in them.”

However, he says a sheik in Dubai once told him that horses are in our blood, in our genes.

Latourelle says that would explain the statistic that 60 per cent of people who see Cavalia aren't "horsey" people.

“And perhaps that's why I felt so connected when I first saw that horse all those years ago.”

Cavalia opens March 6 and runs until Sunday March 24 at the White Big Top, near DFO at Brisbane Airport. Tickets $54 to $199, available online.